Distractions
by chronicxxinsanity
Summary: Nadia has been in the safety of Woodbury for a while recovering, and now that she's come to terms with the changes in the world around her she's decided she better live while she can. (Warning: drinking)


**Distractions**

Warnings: drinking

Summary: Nadia has been in the safety of Woodbury for a while recovering, and now that she's come to terms with the changes in the world around her she's decided she better live while she can.

* * *

"One more?" Nadia asked, holding up her empty mason jar and shaking it.

"This is your last one," the woman behind the makeshift bar - Alice? Allison? - said with a stern look. "I'm cutting you off."

Nadia pouted but accepted the next drink gratefully and sipped it slower than she had the last ones. Scotch had never been her choice of drink before but it was what they had available, and she wasn't about to start getting picky. Alcohol was alcohol and she was getting a nice buzz going on.

She glanced around to see how the party was progressing behind her.

It had been awkward at first. People hadn't been sure what to make of the drinks and the music and the large gathering. Most of them had been brought in either before or after Nadia had been and they had seen what the world had become just as she had. Things like parties and drinking and music seemed too normal when there were dead people walking less than a quarter mile away.

Yet here she was. Alive (scarred up and probably not just physically, but alive). Bad country music was blaring about a breakup. A mason jar of straight scotch in her hand that burned her throat. People were laughing and talking and having fun.

 _Fun._ Nadia never thought she would see _fun_ again in her life. It wasn't that long ago that she accepted what her life had become. Pain. Starvation. Thirst. Fear. Fighting. Clinging to survival. Losing people. She had accepted that her life would be filled with just those things until she died, and she had even accepted that her life expectancy had dropped from 60 more years to maybe 3, 5 if she let herself hope. She never would have even dared hoped to be at a party surrounded by other survivors - and some people who were lucky enough to be shielded from the worst of the world - sitting at a makeshift bar and drinking alcohol.

A particularly loud round of laughter came from the collection of chairs and picnic tables on the lawn of the church.

Nadia took a slow sip from her mason jar and inspected the scar on her hand when she set it back down. It was a long scar, thick and raised from her knuckles up to her forearm and still itched from time to time. Before she could dive back into the self-pitying thoughts she shook her head and took another sip. Tonight's party was no place for her to fall back into being a depressive hermit.

"What do they have to drink here?" a man said, leaning onto the bar and glancing at the bottles just out of reach.

"Only scotch," Nadia answered, swirling the last of hers in the jar, determined to savor it even if she just wanted to toss it back and demand another. She was _really_ going to need to find a way to get some more booze.

"I ain't picky. Hey!" the man yelled, waving the woman down and asking for a glass. "You want another?"

It took Nadia a moment to realize he was talking to her and when she finally looked over he was peering down at her with an arched eyebrow questioningly.

"Yeah, I do actually-"

"She's had enough. Only got so much back here," the bartender said and Nadia rolled her eyes.

"Alrighty then, just one for me," he said and pulled one of the few chairs over to sit at the bar with her. The bartender set a wine glass of scotch in front of him and Nadia stifled her laughter. "What?"

The glass looked impossibly delicate in his large hand. Nadia shook her head and finished her drink, feeling her face go hot and a comfortable buzz run through her body.

"I like their choice of glasses," Nadia finally said when he didn't look away, holding up her own empty mason jar.

He let out an amused huff and took a closer look at his wine glass. Nadia looked him over quickly while he was distracted. He looked vaguely familiar, like everyone else in Woodbury, but she hadn't bothered to get to know anybody so it wasn't a surprise that she didn't know his name. She had always figured their time here was limited, and why get to know people when you're likely to be burying or burning them soon anyway?

"So you got yourself cut off, huh?" he asked, dragging her thoughts back from the brink of being depressive again. She was tired of that happening all the time. "You gettin' too wild?"

"Unfortunately they have a three glass limit," Nadia said, feeling her body grow warmer. It had been a long time since she had gotten her hands on alcohol and perhaps she had underestimated how hard it would hit her after all this time. At the moment, however, it felt like it was hitting her just fine and she could have gone for a fourth glass.

"Damn," he said and finished off his first drink.

"Unless...," Nadia started and grinned before she could help herself. She felt a little nervous when the familiar man beside her turned in his chair to face her.

"Unless?"

"If you can distract Miss Buzzkill over there-" Nadia nodded to the bartender who was busy sorting and cleaning the assortment of glassware. "-I'll be able to grab a bottle."

A wide grin took over his face and he rubbed the stubble on his chin, looking down the bar before looking behind them and finally turning back to her, a mischievous smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"Didn't take you as the criminal type." He didn't say yes or no, but he was still grinning so Nadia took that as a yes.

"That's how I get away with it," Nadia said, grinning when he started to laugh. He had a light, raspy voice that was doing funny things to her even when he was just laughing.

"Merle. What's your name?" He held out his hand and she shook it.

"Nadia."

"Well, Nadia, make sure to grab one of the big bottles." He stood up and straightened his shirt before walking down to the other end of the bar. He leaned against it, standing at the very end so the bartender was forced to turn her back to talk to him.

Nadia stretched as far as she could over the bar, reaching a hand out and letting out a huff when the bottles were still out of reach. She glanced back over to make sure Merle was still distracting the woman before hoisting her body onto the bar, sliding her front as far as she could without toppling over the other side and finally grabbing one of the large bottles.

She shimmied back until her feet touched the ground again and she stood up straight, holding the bottle low and walking away as normally as she could.

Nadia felt a little giddy when she finally got far enough away from the party to slip into the shadows between two houses, laughing to herself and cracking open the stolen bottle. The air was colder here but it felt nice against her hot face, it probably would have started to calm her buzz but she had a remedy for that. She slid down to the grass and got comfortable, taking a long swig of the drink and leaning her head back against the cool wood of the Woodbury home.

She should probably worry about whose house this was, whether someone would walk by and see her...but it felt relaxing to say _fuck it_ and let go of the worry. Nadia had been doing too much of that lately and it felt so good to do something as petty as steal a bottle of scotch and drink it in someone's yard.

"You weren't gonna share?" Merle asked, joining her between the houses and pouting.

Nadia grinned and took another big drink. There were so many little comebacks on the tip of her tongue but she decided to just offer him the bottle and watch him take several gulps, waiting until the burn in the throat subsided.

He sat beside her and let out a long satisfied sigh, finally handing the bottle back to her. They sat that way in silence for a while, passing the bottle back and forth until it was significantly lighter and Nadia felt significantly drunker.

"You make a habit outta swiping drinks?" Merle asked with a grin and Nadia laughed a little louder than she intended.

"I might now. Turns out I'm pretty good at it. Gotta live a little while we're still here, right?"

"With my help," he added, grabbing the bottle out of her hands and taking a sip.

Nadia nodded and grinned, watching him wipe the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"So what brought on the crime-spree? Or have you always had a thing for it?" He shifted on the grass so he didn't have to turn his head so far to look at her.

"I wanted this," Nadia said, lifting the bottle up before taking another drink. She should probably slow down a bit but she was also glad that it had been several minutes since she thought about the world outside the Woodbury walls. "I dunno, the world sucks," she finally said with a sigh when Merle didn't look away or laugh with her.

Warmth spread from her throat down to her stomach with the scotch when she took another drink.

"Not gonna argue with that," Merle muttered, grabbing the bottle from her hands.

"I'm tired of thinking about it all the time. That helps." Nadia motioned to the bottle that was now resting on Merle's lap.

"It?"

"The world, or lack of a world I guess. It gets depressing." This was probably the longest conversation Nadia had in months, and the first one that she didn't end as quickly as possible.

"A little dangerous to rely on this to distract yourself from the world, isn't it?" Merle asked but he didn't sound serious when he said that with the bottle halfway up to his lips again. Nadia found herself staring just a little bit longer when he took another drink.

"Got any other ways to distract me?" She realized that came out _way_ more flirty than she had expected but he didn't seem surprised by it. He lowered the bottle back into his lap and for a moment he seemed to toss her words around his head before grinning.

"I've got a lot of ideas to distract you," Merle said, still grinning when he passed the bottle back to her. "But another time."

Nadia raised her eyebrow questioningly at him, her throat still burning from the sip and she didn't trust herself to speak without coughing yet.

"I don't like taking advantage of drunk chicks." She started to protest that - she wasn't _that_ drunk. "Any other time you want a distraction, though, let me know. Thanks for sharing the scotch."

Merle winked at her and before she could say much more he stood up and walked back out to the street. She watched him leave until he disappeared around the corner and out of sight.

Nadia took another long drink before capping the bottle and saving the last of it for another time. She leaned her head back against the house and let her mind run wild with thoughts of how a guy like that would distract her.

 _Live a little while we're still here_ , she reminded herself. She would _definitely_ have to ask him to distract her later.

Her face still red - from her own imagination and from the alcohol - Nadia finally stood up and used the house behind her to regain her balance. So maybe she had gotten more drunk than she thought, but she was still able to keep her composure while sneaking the half-empty bottle of scotch back to her room for next time.


End file.
